Thursday, May 3, 2012

Transform Builder Grade Drab to Custom Fab

Kim from Sand and Sisal agreed to kick off a fabulous series of guest posts while I am busy packing for our upcoming Disney Trip. We're telling the girls the big surprise early tomorrow, and then it's off to Florida! (Hopefully. Please say a prayer today for Natalie, who's been complaining of a tummy ache and ran a fever.) Today, Kim is going to share some tips for transforming builder grade drab cabinets and fixtures into fabulous custom pieces that you can be proud of!

Hi everyone! I’m Kim from Sand and Sisal and I’m happy to be guest hosting for Amanda today! Many of us do not have the luxury of living in a home filled with custom features. We often find ourselves with beige walls and boring sub-par cabinetry and fixtures. Achieving a gorgeous custom made look is easier than you think and won’t break your bank! Today I’m going to give you a few Tips to Transform Builder Grade Drab into Custom Made Fab!

TRANSFORM THE WALLS WITH PAINT

The most basic tip in creating a custom look is of course to add color with paint. Painting a room can transform the entire mood and feel of a space for very little expense. I like to add interest to a painted room by adding stripes and additional colors that complement each other.

If adding additional colors is a bit too bold for you, consider painting a room first in a flat or egg shell sheen and then painting horizontal or vertical stripes in the exact same color, but in a gloss sheen. You’ll have created a subtle and sophisticated effect. Click to read my tutorial Painting Stripes Made Easy like you see in the “before and after” pictures below.

TRANSFORM YOUR HARDWARE AND FIXTURES

The next way to get that custom look is to transform your fixtures and hardware. You do not have to spend money on changing out your hardware for new ones though! You can paint it. I have fallen in love with Rustoleum’s Universal spray paints. They are primer and paint in one, will cover any surface, and come in several metallic finishes.

Look at how I transformed this ugly plastic and ceramic towel bar into a pretty oil rubbed bronze bar. Click HERE to see all the different types of hardware you can spray paint.

TRANSFORM YOUR MIRRORS

Most of us have these gigantic plain mirrors in our home, lacking any type of originality. Paying a company to add a custom frame to you mirror is expensive! In my tutorial How to Frame a Mirror I teach you how to create a gorgeous, lightweight frame made from PVC moldings for under $30! Once you make your first mirror frame, you will be framing every mirror in your home! It’s that crazy easy!

TRANSFORM YOUR BATHROOM WITH TILE

Now I really can’t complain about my master bath. It’s “bones” are gorgeous but it lacked any kind of special personality. I decided to Add Glass and Stone Tile Border right above the top edge of my tub and my shower surround.

If you’ve never tiled anything in your life, I promise you, that you will be able to do this! Just look at the difference the tile makes in the before and after pictures below.

TRANSFORM YOUR KITCHEN

I love my island. I get used more than any part of the kitchen, and it is also the focal point of the kitchen. The problem was that it looked like a plain box. The cabinet fronts are maple but the ends are thin fiberboard with a “maple looking” veneer. I transformed the island by adding bead board and newel posts to the ends and then painting the entire island a new contrasting color.

This project requires the use of power tools but the overall results are amazing. You can save several hundred dollars by doing this project yourself vs. hiring it out. Click here to read how to do a Kitchen Island Makeover.

TRANSFORM YOUR CABINETS

Our maple cabinets are getting an orange hue that seems to intensify with each passing year. I don’t like it. I wanted rich espresso brown cabinets but replacing them seemed ridiculous because they are still in wonderful condition. Thankfully, Rustoleum has make a Cabinet Transformation kit that you custom color to what you like. This kit allows you to paint with out priming even. There are steps you must do to prepare the cabinets for paint but it does not involve sanding! Woo-hoo!!!

In my tutorial Painted Cabinets I walk you through step by step on how to paint, distress, glaze, and protect the cabinets. Your friend will be amazed at the custom high-end look of your painted cabinets when you are done!

TRANSFORM WALLS WITH BEAD BOARD AND TRIM

Adding bead board to a wall gives a room a ton of character. If you are just starting out I recommend trying bead board below a chair rail. For our daughters’ bathroom we added bead board to a wall that reached 3/4 of the way up and installed a picture ledge.

Power tools are a girl’s best friend!

In the post Bead Board Bathroom Reveal you will learn how we installed each part of the bead board wall as well as links to other projects you might see in this bathroom.

I hope you enjoyed these tips on how to transform your builder grade drab to custom made fab!

Special thanks to Kim for sharing her secrets with us. I have admired her style for awhile now, so I was really pleased when she agreed to share a post here at Serenity Now. Updated cabinet fixtures are on my to-do list for our kitchen. Isn't it amazing what some paint and elbow grease can do?

My Weekend Bloggy Reading link party is on for tomorrow! Bring your best post of the week.

Here's the button code for the party if you want to get a head start! Recipes, crafts, home decor, book reviews, funny stories, you name it. Come prepared to showcase your blog and find some great weekend reads.

These are such great tips! My husband and I have always lived in the "drab" builder-grade homes and I can attest to the difference the bead board and paint alone make. I wish I would have incorporated more of these ideas (like spray painting the towel rods- genius!) into our last house before we sold it. Doing that for sure next time around!

This is Me

I'm a stay-at-home mom of three kids, a fluffy Pomeranian, and a rambunctious German Shepherd puppy. Happily married to T. We live in Virginia, but I secretly dream of what it would be like to have a place in NYC to escape to for random girls' shopping weekends. Target is my home away from home. I stay sane by doing creative projects around my home and taking lots of pictures. Stick around for realistic inspiration...on a budget!

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